Enough is enough...
Aside from having obsolete news and paid editorial coverage, newspapers bombard you by an endless number of pages of ads, ads and ads.. Today's Gulf News main section had 22 page-ads out of total 31 pages leaving only 9 pages of stale news. Those of you who like to see the main page for 'breaking or top news' can also say farewell to that since every single issue now has a full page ad on the main cover...
Let's get this straight. Everything you need to know you've most probably already either browsed on the internet or your Blackberry or have seen on TV news channels. The newspaper is full of ads and stale news. Editorial is either paid for or 'borrowed'. So why do we need this kind of newspaper?
What happened to newspapers here? They are clearly a thing of the past and a waste of money for those who subscribe to them and advertise in them. To top things, each issue is an environmental hazard with alomost 1 kg of paper that you virtually throw after 5 minutes.
It's not fair to the environment, to the readers and to the advertisers. No one is actually getting any value out of this kind of newspaper. Compare to the likes of Financial Times and Wall Street Journal where you can read the newspaper from cover to cover and be truely fulfilled and more informed and all you want to do afterwards is never hold an issue of these local papers again..
Saturday 16 February 2008
Is it a newspaper or an adpaper?
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2 comments:
Rather than focus on the content they deliver to their readers, the newspapers are more tempted by the quick buck they can make while the Dubai real estate boom lasts. They fail to realize that loyalty and patience of readers is shortlived with the fragmented media landscape and once readers migrate to other sources of content, they will rarely return.
I wonder how the publications calculate their readership scores inspite of the lack of readable content? Do readers really love the advertising in the media?
Mind you that there are still enough people out there who don't have access to digital information sources and who depend on newspapers, including ads, to keep them informed. At the end of the day, it's still much nicer to sit in a cafe or park and read a newspaper rather than on a pc at your desk, even with the large amount of ads.
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